MODERN THOUGHT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 14, 24 July 1885, Page 23

MODERN THOUGHT.

(By the Rev. A. X.

CASSIDY.) INFIDBLMST and indifferentism are spreading over the world with dangerous rapidity. It requires little proof to convince us of this. We need only open our eyes to every-day life, to every day friends, to find the sad history of doubt and infidelity everywhere written around us Prom the school boy to the venerable silver-headed man whose faltering steps are hurrying him to the open grave.-from the beggar to the big man of broad acres, from the printer's devil to the editor, from the elementary student to the professor, this deplorable spirit breathes, vitalises and prevails. Many men of all capacities and every shade of talent, cf all nationalities aud colors are daily increasing ra number who are indifferent about all and every religion, following as their only guide through life and eternity either their own individual reason, or some remnant of Christianity which necessarily flows from it, and so, ignoring everything else and contenting themselves with no further enquiry, live and die practical infidels as foolish as they are vain. • xS ea S^ **$■ *eas? n S> al f is their war cry, their pillar of fire by night, their cloud of glory by day. They are too enlightened to beheye m anything but themselves, too presumptuous to learn or enquire ; they are too foolish to weigh and carefully consider the first questions their reason itself suggests, or to employ it in the study of the truths most worthy of their attention. They are men, yet they ET ISwL?JS ier >l«. Th. evarere^°»We.but we cannot see how. They say they are the wise ones, but we cannot persuade ourwives they are. They eat, drink, and make merry. But does not every amnaal do the same. They build cities and houses for their comfort and pleasure, but all animated nature does likewise, and no royal babe sleeps more content in his glided couch than does the young spider or sparrow m his little home. They glory in the rapidity with which they travel over land and sea or through the air. But does not the meanest fly go faster and surer than man with all his boasted skill and dexterity. But are we then the inferiors of all i£« Vmg ii Jif 8 - w e mo facilitjr or P°wer that makes ™ more thau all the rest. We have; we are reasonable, or at least ought to be. Reason then, and reason only, is the faculty that proclaims our superiority over everything else in creation, and it is only by using reahon rightly we show ourselves men. S Reason is the faculty of investigating and knowing the unseen - it is a ray of sunshine proceeding from the Eternal suu, to light up the darkness of life, to show all that is fair and beautiful her!, anS fling its shadow over the dark, gloomy spots of the earth. Alt light comes from Heaven, irom the sun rolling in its splendour in the clouds above us, from the planets in the far off space, aud all light comes to show v*u* «>* passing shadows of the faint loveliness of earth, and then by us brilliancy to force us to look higher for beauty and fSS^n&H i • HAH AV he Hght ia the P^fection of sensible things, so Reason is the climax of created power; it is the highest display of God s omnipotence, the perfection of His gifts, the oue that makes us like Himself, and given to b.ing us infallibly to Him! Reason is the faculty of discerning the true from the fal«e, of deciding between right and wrong, of selecting the most important question and giving us the truth about thlm. Bat what are the most important things to b d acquainted with, and to employ our reason m investigating? Aro the animala that surroundi us, the plants we trample upon, the ocean that comes and goes? Is it the building up or crumolins away of nations, the advancement of science and ait? No, answers Reason The most important object of all animated nature is myself iLveryammal and everything cl 6e Beems to attend to itself and "o should I. And before 1 ask them what they are I should ask myself the same question, and wait patiently fur the answer. Let, then, reason tell me the slOry of my beginning and my end, let her lift onVh SL?* 8 7y7 y , th, at bZ Fmnd * W life > her tbr °w her n«bme on the shadows tnat bewilder or oppress, and lead me to the buu of Jiternal Day, guiding me sately over the rough ocean, of the mysterious world ,n which 1 find myßelf a s'ranger and an exile * th/« n t ™"UOt ?f ist ot ltßelf > therefore an Eternal reason exis-s X« .g?-h.. g ?-h. £ t f Kt;a T eilli?htenedanaied »y tQ * senses from the Visible world, roiu her own existence, from the order, wisdom and beauty it sees ,« everything, even in the flower or woTm Z> crush with the duHt, to the most disi ant star tnat gem * the bright heaven above, is Lecessitated'to believe in the existence of a supreme mind from which everything pruc-eds. by which everytbingTs^ latedundgovermd To this great centre of Supreme Reason our reason is ri.cessanty drawn, and turns to it asnamrally as "he needle to the pol, and so reason's first quiver points to Heaven and ™i tells us ,t there exista an effect there must also exist a cause, and being unable tofind a self, satisfying cause for all she knows exists, she leaves this wo, Id, and passing the portals of sensible existence she s )ars to the limitless biyondf and there, in the solemn s.W of eternal ,|«r, she worships and believes man Eternal Infin.te and all-.vise power that gave all birth. Far in that mysterious land, reason w foiced to recoil, and must acknowledge that neither us own poB-.ib.Hty of soaring up to those mysterious heists of t.tougnt, nor the poswbilitv of everything it Fees or understand! can bere,soned or accounted for, without the existence of Supreme « ™;VJ?r hh + eeX. lSteuce "f Ood ' No > let reason struggle as she may, let her retreat or steadily advance over the vast areua of nitelU'ciual hurvey that opens wide before her, let her endeavour to explain lite and creation otherwise, and she cannot. The pretended explanation Rive .by the Rationa ists of the day is only a supposition changing shifting on the q-ticksanJs of doubt, without any foundation whatsoever. If they are only honest they must so acknowledge. For the summits of truth only seem to recede as they advance, and their flagging spirit niuet sink down. Oi the last hillock it has climbed and exclaim* d, " there is the breath of an Eternal being around me, there is the sound of au Almighty voice falling on my ear, there is the touch of a limitless hand, thereu the trace of a limitless power, there is the glory of an uncreated Wisdom, there is the summit of all Reason, there let my

reason rest ia humble adoration and love." Bat many do not wish to acknowledge all that, the very brightness of the light seems to overpower their mental vision, and they become darkened to all farther enquiry and troth, and doubt of everything; and because they do not know everything possible about every possible mystery around us they say we know nothing at all about anything. ' We might as well say because we don't know astronomy we don't know arithmetic, because we don't know Hiadostanee we knownothing about English, or because we cannot weigh the undiscovered planets, round the untrodden shores of some forgotten sea, or analyse the light, we dare not express a single thought about ourself, our destiny, or the cause that gave us birth,— though Reason and the senses tell us many things about them and God. Our eras tell us He is beautifnl, our ears tell us He is majestic, oar minds tell us He is powerful, our thoughts tell us He is wise, our hearts tell us He is God, our nature tells us He is just. Thus leaving aside the tradition of the human race, ignoring for a moment the revelation made by God to man, our common sense and reason can form a sublime picture of what God really is ; it also tells us what we ourselves are We are immortal, and would;not the, very thought kill us to think that we were not?-To see no more the passing clouds, the mountains stern and lofty, the ocean, the glorious sun, or the friends we may have loved through life. To rest for ever in eternal darkness: oh cruel thought. To hear no more the songs of the birds, the passing breath of summer aighing through the trees, the deep breathings of the ocean s prayer, the strains of gentle music, or the laugh of our young friends. To rest in eternal silence unbroken and undisturbed • oh, despairing dream of misery and woe. To live no more, no memory, will or hope, no recollection of the Dast, no prospects of the future, no enjoyment of the present, to be "rudely blown over the sanarab of lite into the howling wilderness of eternal death unknown and not remembered. And though we might; be consoled that over our tombs some kind friends might think of us and sigh tbat men might sometimes pronounce our names, and cherish for awhile our memories, but would it console us to be remembered if only our lifeless dust remained. Time, however, in its rapid march would soon blot out our memories and burry friends away. Silence and solitude would fall on our nameless tombs', and from the fay-off shores of eternity no soothing memories or breath of affection would be wafted over our forgotten graves. Oar reason tells us we were created by God, and as He is wise and just He must have created us with- thoughts, feelings, powers, aspirations, wishes adapted to the end we were created for. Hence the soul does not dis or end here because it has never reached its end. It wants perfect knowledge, perfect power, perfect love. It wants the perfect enjoyment of the perfect good ; it can only rest satisfied when it has found it so, it can only rest when it rests with God The pleasures of human life, with all its brightest prospects are so few thac they can only be possessed by a few ; they are so empty that they can never satisfy anyone completely, they are so transitory and fleeting they are not worth while attaching oneself to. Hence there must exist another world Reason here and there grows dumb, and we cannot with certitude follow its guidance, and thereby rely on our perfect conformity with God Himself. He must have left us another guide; He , must have left us a higher knowledge than reason can give. And Reason, too, will tell us that He has given that knowledge, for Reason can always distinguish the voice of God from every other voice, for God is bound to give unerring proofs that He has spoken. When such proofs are certainly, given it is Reason's duty to listen to and obey the known voice of Czod No unreasonable faith is demanded of us, and all truth, whether natural or supernatural ia addressed to our Reason aud shines upon our intellects as well by the fainter beams of the morning as by the full blazd of the midday sun. Faith only is the peifviciion of neason.and it can never be inconsistent with Reason or conrradici it. b aith takes us by the hand where the light of Reason grows dim and bhows us the unseen world, the hidden life the eternal power,— just as the telescope shows us the planets rolling in the fai-off space where our eyes cannot follow. Reason is the first btrcak of light brightening the grey dawn of the early moraine while faith is the spleudor of the noon-day sun, showing us the beau' lies of all thai is. And as light and light cannot clash or destroy each other, but rather intensify each other's effects, so reason aud laith should always go together, aud never contradict one another ODce Reason assures herself that God has really spoken, Reason then must worship aad believe. Reason when properly enlightened will direct ua to believe what we cannot comprehend when its truth is certainly attested. What is more reasonable than to believe God in all things above our Reason, to submit our Reason to the greatest authorxty on earth, supported by the strongest arguments. Things or truths above Reason canuot certainly be against it And if we wrangle or quarrel with God, because we don't know as much as He does, do we not show ourselves most unreasonable 1 If we want to know everything and understand everything we want to have Infinne Reason, we want to be Gods, and so we manifest our absurd unreasonableness.

We must believe in things above our Reason, in things we cannot understand, and if we do not, Sinai, with its fire and cloud its terror and thu ider, gives no lesson ; the naked cross or the emDtv sepulchre says nothing to us. *^ We abuee'Ueaon then by not using it in investigating the truth, and by not believing truths we cannot comprehend. We abuse Reason by not using it to lead ua to knowledge of the natural and suDernatural, by its not directing us to God. and to the full knowledge of Uimselt aud us. We abuse Reason by not walking the high way of justice and trui hit marks out for us. We abuse Reason by not following it till it leads ua to something higher, till the full blaze of heavenly light shines upon us, or till we hear the sweep of the winged angel scattering to the four winds of heaven the remnants of our earthly dust, till our Father and our Creator calls us home to res*